Sean “Diddy” Combs kept girlfriend-turned accuser Cassie Ventura humiliated, frightened, and financially dependent, including when she recorded a popular mixtape with A-list artists, the couple’s former stylist testified at Combs’ sex-trafficking trial.
Ventura’s critically-praised 2013 mix tape, “RockaByeBaby,” featured rap stars Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Fabolous, Pusha T, and Wiz Khalifa, stylist Deonte Nash told Combs’ Manhattan jury on Wednesday.
Combs, who executive produced the mixtape through his label, Bad Boy Records, released the tape online — where it could be downloaded for free — in April, 2013, Nash testified.
Combs promised Ventura that if the tape did well, he would release it to streaming platforms, which pay royalties to artists, the stylist said, adding that Combs never did despite its success.
“It was the top mixtape of that year,” said Nash, who styled the R&B singer and acted as a producer for her project.
Instead of collecting royalties, “No one got paid for the mixtape,” Nash said.
Federal prosecutors say Combs paid for Ventura’s house, car, and expenses, and repeatedly threatened to take it all away if she left him or refused to submit to “freak offs.” These were dayslong sexual performances involving drugs and hired male escorts that Combs would film and masturbate to, and which the rap millionaire has maintained were consensual.
Nash was the latest government witness to describe the financial hold Combs allegedly had over Ventura during their on-and-off relationship between 2007, when she was 21 years old, and 2018.
Ventura taped “hundreds of songs,” Nash told the jury. When lead prosecutor Maurene Comey asked how many were actually released, Nash answered, “Hmm, I would say — I’m being generous by saying 10%.”
Combs signed Ventura to a 10-album deal in 2006, but only released one album. She testified two weeks ago that she was only paid for that first album, the eponymous “Cassie,” released in the summer of 2006.
Nash also described instances when Ventura was called “whore” and “slut” by Combs.
“That was his fave,” Nash said of the term “bitch.”
Combs frequently told Ventura, “Bitch, stop playing with me,” or “Bitch, you better bring your ass to this house,” Nash told the jury.
He described a 2013 incident when Combs, during an argument, choked him and threw him against a car. He described Combs beating Ventura for oversleeping at another point that year — and jumping on Combs’ back in a failed attempt to stop him.
“Look what y’all made me do,” Nash said Combs told him, after Ventura struck her head on the bedpost and began bleeding profusely.
Nash said he learned of freak offs in 2013 or 2014, after Combs threatened to send sex tapes to Ventura’s parents in Connecticut. Nash suggested calling Combs’ bluff, assuming that Combs, too, would be on the tapes and would be embarrassed if they went public.
“She said that he was not on the videos,” and that they instead show her “Having sex with other guys,” Nash testified.
Asked what Ventura said about these sex performances, Nash answered, “that she didn’t want to.”
He also said he has kept in touch with Ventura. He said he advised her on her witness wardrobe during her four days of testimony, and had called to congratulate her on Tuesday on the birth of her third child.
The stylist showed some wit — including when Comey showed him his photograph, in evidence as Government Exhibit 2A-504. Comey asked if it was an accurate photograph, and Nash answered, “No.”
When Comey smiled and asked if the photo was a “glamour shot,” Nash answered, “Yes. I look amazing.”
Nash said he spoke to prosecutors and took the stand against Combs because he had been subpoenaed — and he conceded on the stand that during one of his pretrial interviews, he told Comey that he had smoked marijuana. Comey cut that interview short, he said.
At another point in his testimony, Nash referred to the prosecutor — Comey is lead prosecutor on the Combs prosecution, and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey — as “girl.”
“Girl, I was not about to tell him that he should not give that girl a party,” he responded when Comey asked about a conversation in which Combs asked his advice on throwing Ventura a 29th birthday party.
Nash is due to return to the stand on Thursday to complete his cross examination by Combs’ attorney Xavier Donaldson.
The second sexual abuse accuser in the trial — a former Combs employee who’ll testify under the pseudonym of “Mia” — is expected to be called after Nash completes his turn on the stand.
She is due to testify most of the day Thursday and well into Friday, prosecutors said.
Mia will speak about “her worst secrets, the worst things that ever happened to her,” her attorney, Michael Ferrara, has said in court.
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